While excitement is building for the NFL postseason, the same can be said for the 2023 draft chase. The #1 pick seemed like a foregone conclusion for months. It was the Houston Texans’ to lose. That changed after they stunned the Tennessee Titans last weekend. Now at 2-12-1, they are only a half-game ahead of the Chicago Bears for that spot. If they win one more of their remaining two games and Chicago loses out, the Bears would secure the 1st pick. Their odds sit at 25%. Things are getting interesting.
It appears those around the league are curious about what might happen if Chicago steals that pick. With Justin Fields in place, they do not need a quarterback. This means one of two things. Either they can take the best non-QB on the board or trade the pick to a team that desperately seeks a QB. Albert Breer of the MMQB seems to think the possibility is strong that GM Ryan Poles would consider the latter. He’d be in an ideal position to do so. It comes down to whether the quarterbacks available are enticing enough.
“Which brings us to the operative question here, and that’s whether the pick would be marketable. To me, getting real value for the selection would require a quarterback getting hot and separating himself through the draft process, whether it’s Alabama’s Bryce Young, Kentucky’s Will Levis, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud or Florida’s Anthony Richardson. Then, you’d need a quarterback-needy team picking second, compelling another team to move (the Texans would give Chicago that).
That’s one reason why I’m really looking forward to this stuff this year. There’s so much for teams to figure out on quarterbacks, and a perceived drop-off after Carter and Anderson, and all of it should make for some pretty intriguing storylines the next four months.”
The Chicago Bears are so close to creating chaos.
Two more losses and a Texans win over Jacksonville or Indianapolis would flip the NFL draft world on its head. Poles traded down several times in the 2022 draft. He’s swung deals with multiple teams this past year. So we know he isn’t opposed to wheeling and dealing. It comes down to how much he loves the top non-QB prospects at the top of the draft and how big the offers are to move down. There is also the question of how far to move down. It’s unlikely the Bears would want to drop out of the top 10. Lots of variables play into this.
It would be the first time since 1947 the Chicago Bears held the #1 pick. A lot has changed since then. The safe assumption is Poles would either take Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson, Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter or trade the pick. If he chooses the latter, it would be only the second time in two decades that the first pick was traded. The other was in 2016 when the St. Louis Rams moved up to take Jared Goff. It isn’t something that happens much. So one can understand why there’s already excitement at the possibility.